Hiatus

[Zeo]

GU wiil be going down some time this week, while I A. recover from whatever the hell I've got, and B.  Try and see about some new features.  It will probably be down a couple weeks.

What to expect in the coming year.

A   I have to talk to our host first, but we're probably looking at a new host to do the things I want to do, and its relatively expensive.  Money I can invest elsewhere.  Right now I have no idea what the service contract is, or why its almost 3 times higher then the current premium plan they offer.

B. As i said before I want to be a one stop shop.  That means, making more options to participate, and rewards for doing so. To the effect, I will be adding, at least,  a race option, a story book option,  and a Code repository.  There will be giftcard prizes at times, but this is not to be a common thing, and you must meet certain criteria to win.  All game rated contests will be hosted by ICGF.

C.  No more random moderators for now.  Zel and I will run the site.

D.  GU is meant to be a safe space, and I know I've been bad about maintaining this in my anger over what happened to me, but I'm far from the only one that was guilty on this.   I:m redrafting my most restrictive set of rules, and they will be going up.  However the bottom line is, whether it be on the forums, in the Discord Rowan is running,  or in pms, or over contests the following shall apply

Its all good till you're told to stop, then stop.  That being said, valid  coherent arguments about why you are doing this, will be considered and telling people to stop things that aren't abusive will be seen as spam.

E.  if everything gets off the ground and running as envisioned, i expect to be running ads to have the site cover itself.  Extra money from any such ads will be put into ICGF for prizes or into site upgrades.

F. Adult sections.  Yes adult sections. I had original planned to allow anyone that had an account 15 years old or older to bypass verification, but that no longer applies.  i will need a govenremnt issued ID on flie for you to participate, unless you;re nf of the 4 current accounts that I personally know are over 18 This does NOT MEAN PORNOGRAPHY.  This is for adult drawings, literature and non sexual photography.  This also may require a host change, gotta check the terms.

G. Classifieds, the old want ads.  Due to current Federal regulations, these will not include hook ups, (nor is that really GU is for anyway).  What they are for, is buy sell trade and panning group meets.

Anyway what's leaving GU:

1.  GU reporter will be getting a 100% make over.  The current way it's set up I feel is distracting from the site, and make us look more like IGN or watch MOJO then I care for.  GU was NEVER in the  position to be a primary source of news, and never will be.  When its done though ANYONE will be able to post a review or article up the GU reporter section, and if approved will show as an article on the main site.  If i can swing it there ill also be a special editor to allow for more control of article pages.

2. The forums acting as the main site.  GU was always meant to be more then a BBS, and having the forums tied to the main site as intricately as these are scares me in so many ways.

3. Chat:  Unless Rowan divorces GU's name  from  his discord, or says he wishes otherwise,  it will be the official GU chat.

4.  The seven grudges of GU past.  i know I'm belaboring the point, but its important, Rowan deleted the past, and with it everything that can be used to verify it.  Therefore, besides that action and Jim, everything else is to be NEW, until such a time as the database is recovered, if ever.  Any grudge you have, drop it.  You dont have to like anyone, but with out the archives, I have no reason or ability to implement polices about past offenses. 


And finally I will be going through and reserving names, if you can prove you're so and so, i will give a password for your name.  Overlord and Dark Jim's names have been reserved.  Rowan James and Zel still have thiers.

[Rowan]

Ok, my eyes refuse to let me even try and read all of that, but let me give you some advice.

Rules. You made too many. Back and even now. Keep it simple. People know what they should be able to get away with. Handle it on a case by case basis, unless it's something blatantly obvious, like porn linking, which always has and always should be a permaban.

Hosting. I got a VPS account, which is more expensive than a regular share account. At the time of purchase, it was a safe bet, because I didn't want other sites hosted on the same hardware to cause this site to go down. I will investigate this price discrepancy for you, if you want.

The forum. My suggestion is to delete it and start fresh, like Overlord was suggesting with Project Phoenix, ages ago. This guarantees a database that is secure and stable, and no errors, like the postcounts and number of topics (I dunno what to do to fix that particular blemish).

If you really want my help with anything, I'll be around, here and there. I'm always on the Discord server, unless I'm asleep or actually doing something (which is rare), so if you need me to tell or show you how to do something, I can do that.

Finally, and I think this is reiterating. In the WHM panel, there is a section called software or something like that. Under it, you can find the update function. This updates the software installed on the server (it's a CENTOS 7 server, I believe).

The only thing I request is you get everything transferred to your name, however all that needs to be done. For the server, you login to the support page (I believe it was the second link I sent you), and in the upper left is a box showing the user account information, along with an edit link. The Domain Service is a little trickier, we'll get it handled in time.

[Edit] I just took a look, and it's the Perfetto 3 service that I got. Note that the pricing they advertise is for those paying yearly, versus month by month, like I've been. They've really been making a lot of money off of me, simply because I couldn't afford to pay a year at a time. To look at that, from the page I mentioned above, click the box that says Services. It's also a way to get to the billing area, iirc

[Zeo]

One thing i do want to reiterate, I WILLL BE AVAILIBLE usually with in 24 hours if you contact me.

If I'm ever unable to be contacted for more then a week, unannounced I'm probably dead.

How i was taught and how am I am is fair, but I've had being NICE driven out of me by a variety of factors.  I may not be the most pleasant, but I will try everyone as I see they deserve.

That being said, I do owe everyone a general apology.   While I'm still convinced of the righteousness of my cause, I have fallen much shorter on controlling my temper, and very short on thinking about long term effects of my actions.


At some point I decided I lost and it became a matter of principle and faith, rather then a matter of practicality, and this hurt everyone, and not in the least myself.

I was fighting a battle that my 19-24 year old safe was demanding, and could handle, with ease.  My 38 year old self  however has other priorities and major life issues that didn't exist then, and are going to interfere with GU.  My 24 year old self would have dropped everything and had the host swapped, upgrades complete, and be advertising the hell of the new  improved GU, probably by the end of the week.

This is going to take a least a year to do right. And its going to be a much harder battle with basically only me and Zel, and Zel is to be  handling all the day to day wile I concentrate on long term projects.a